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Is Erik Norlander a better keyboard player than Jordan Rudess?


abacab

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Based on the videos I have seen of both over the past few years, no. But he is a much better knob turner, button presser, and ribbon sliderer, his house band is better, he does decent Keith Emerson stylistic impersonations, and has better cut-ins of Sandra Bullocks (or whoever that is).

Plus, they both play better than me and have more and/or better synths than me, so they both win! 

                                                                                                    ?  ? 

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Plus Erik co-designed the A6 for Alesis back in the 90's, and more recently sampled all of the synths used in IK Syntronik. :)

I cannot afford a hardware collection like his, so I will have to make do with Syntronik Galaxy (the only Andromeda emulation that I am aware of).

 

A6 Andromeda.PNG

Edited by abacab
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12 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Both are truly talented individuals that have excellent playing chops :D

Better equipment and playing ability then me all around!

I guess that Erik is more prog rock, while Jordan is more prog metal... both great in their respective genres... :)

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2 hours ago, abacab said:

Better equipment and playing ability then me all around!

I guess that Erik is more prog rock, while Jordan is more prog metal... both great in their respective genres... :)

Dream Theater is one of my all time favorite bands.  Simply.  Amazing.  I mean, those guys never met a time signature they didn't like...

 

Edited by husker
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15 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

I have never heard of them so i don’t know. 

Am i missing something ?

Jerry

Yes.

Erik owns most of, and sampled all of, the vintage synths for IK Multimedia Syntronik. Not as well known as a musician as Jordan, but has released a number of albums. I was a bit surprised by his Keith Emerson-ish style skills in the above video.  He was also co-designer of the Alesis Andromeda A6 analog synth, as well as the original IK UNO analog synth. https://eriknorlander.com/bio

Jordan is the long-time keyboard player for Dream Theater. These days he can also be found all over the net doing promo videos for other products displaying his keyboard chops (he makes any instrument sound great), as well as promoting his music technology company, Wizdom Music. https://www.jordanrudess.com/
 

Quote

Voted “Best Keyboardist of All Time” by Music Radar Magazine

Jordan Rudess is best known as the keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire for platinum-selling Grammy- nominated prog rock band, Dream Theater.

Quote

REVIEWS FOR GEOSHRED

That’s just nuts. You’re [Jordan] the best-guitarist-without-a-guitar of all time” – Joe Satriani

 

Edited by abacab
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I'm not as familiar with the other guy but Jordan can imagine any genre within 2 seconds and be playing an A game rendition of it, all made up on the fly of course with a precision seldom seen anywhere else.

His hands are fast, his recollection of anything in any key is comparable to a walking music library.  Dream Theater probably never pushed his abilities. I wanted to see him break into something else. He could have killed it in the classical world and probably made better money or done well as a jacked up sort of progressive player pushing new boundaries. His love of keyboards and knowledge of how they work is unique in most at this level.

On another level I'm a little sad for Jordan as a man who's music is his life. Never married, never really did much else other than travel and play. Not everyone would have liked living like that but he seems content in it. Not having these attachments is one of the things that allows him to be so versatile to go somewhere on a whim, play in a well known band, promote new music gear etc.

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